At the Movies

Sneak Preview

Monster House
An animated feature about a group of children who realize a neighborhood house is really a monster. The CG feature is produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. (PG)

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Keeping Up With the Steins
A competitive Hollywood agent plans to stage a lavish bar mitzvah for his son that will outdo his rival's "Titanic"-themed celebration. The agent's plans go awry when his free-spirited father enters the picture. Review on Thursday's Entertainment page. (PG-13)

Little Man
Brothers Marlon and Shawn Wayans follow up "White Chicks" with this screwball comedy about a short-statured criminal who poses as an adopted baby to recover a stolen diamond from an unsuspecting couple. (PG-13)

A Scanner Darkly
Based on Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novel, it's set in a near future of America. The war on drugs is a lost cause, and an undercover cop is hooked on Substance D, which causes its users to develop split personalities. Director Richard Linklater uses the rotoscope animation he last used on "Waking Life" on a cast that includes Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder. Review on Page 21. (R)

You, Me and Dupree1/2
Owen Wilson plays a ne'er-do-well and perpetual bachelor who overstays his welcome at the house of his newlywed buddy (Matt Dillon) and his wife (Kate Hudson), throwing their new, comfortable middle-class lives out of whack. Review on Page 23. (PG-13)

Now Playing

G - General audiences.

Cars1/2
Director John Lasseter and his Pixar animation team's latest feature is about a hotshot rookie race car (voiced by Owen Wilson) who learns about life in the slow lane when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured to the sleepy town of Radiator Springs.

The Wild
The computer-animated film is about a New York City zoo lion (voiced by Keifer Sutherland) who enlists his animal friends to search for his cub, who was mistakenly shipped to the wild.

PG - Parental guidance suggested.

Akeelah and the Bee1/2
The innate talent of an inner-city girl makes her a surprise contender for the national spelling bee. Keke Palmer steps into a lead role with poise, panache and hearty humor.

Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties1/2
On a trip to England, the comic strip fat cat (voiced by Bill Murray) is mistaken for another tabby who inherited a castle. But a nefarious count is determined to do away with Garfield, so he can turn the castle into a resort. The movie is mere kitty litter.

Ice Age: The Meltdown1/2
The cheery animated sequel might as well come with another subtitle: "Featuring Scrat!" The fanged little goof constantly upstages the top-billed talent with his manic antics to secure his precious acorn. The movie is right on par with the 2002 original: brisk and loaded with slapstick.

An Inconvenient Truth
A documentary about former Vice President Al Gore's touring multimedia talk about the moral challenge of global warming. The film's not about Gore but mainly on his presentation on the alarming effect of carbon-dioxide emissions on the world's climate. For that, it's a necessary film.

The Lake House1/2
Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves star in this remake of a South Korean film about a doctor who trades love letters with one of her home's previous owners -- and discover that they are living two years apart of each other.

Nacho Libre
Jack Black plays a Mexican cook who moonlights on the Lucha Libre wrestling circuit to funnel his prize money to orphans.

PG-13 - Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate from children under age 13.

An American Haunting1/2
Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland star in this horror-chiller based on the legend of the Bell Witch, a demon that has plagued a Tennessee family since the 1800s. While it feels like an atmospheric Gothic flick of the 1960s, it doesn't add up to much of a movie.

The Benchwarmers1/2
This baseball buffoonery comedy packs more pop than you'd expect from a film made up of former "Saturday Night Live" second-stringers (Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Lovitz, plus Jon Heder from "Napoleon Dynamite"). Three grown-up dweebs form a barnstorming team seeking to lay the smackdown on full-rostered youth squads.

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Adam Sandler's latest comedy overflows with the juvenile hijinks that initially made him a star and ventures into the serious adult territory of his later, more thoughtful films. He stars as a harried architect who stumbles upon a universal remote that allows him to control his life. The first hour is often so tiresomely sub-moronic that it's surprising that Sandler and director Frank Coraci are able to pull out a movie that shows real heart at the end.

The Da Vinci Code
Based on the novel, the murder of a curator at the Louvre reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected since the days of Christ. Tom Hanks stars as the symbologist out to solve the murder. Ron Howard's adaptation, while handsomely produced, comes off as wordy and slow.

The Devil Wears Prada1/2
More college drab than haute couture, a hapless young woman (Anne Hathaway) becomes the assistant to a demanding editor (Meryl Streep) who oversees the fashion bible of New York.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift1/2
A young American street racer living in Japan gets caught up in the underworld of drift racing. Trouble ensues when he falls for the girlfriend of the Drift King, a local champ with Yakuza ties.

Just My Luck1/2
Lindsay Lohan plays a young career woman, lucky in life, who exchanges a kiss -- and fortunes -- with a hapless stranger.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom reprise their roles in the swash-buckling sequel to the popular 2003 movie. This time, Capt. Jack Sparrow discovers he owes a bloody debt to the legendary Davy Jones (Bill Nighy). It's a darker tale than the first, but director Gore Verbinski has spun a rollicking, well-paced yarn nevertheless.

Poseidon
A groaning giant of a film, it delivers disaster on an epic scale and absurdity in abundance. The action remake, about a cruise ship capsized by a freak wave, is bigger, louder and cheesier than its 1972 predecessor.

Scary Movie 41/2
The latest sequel has sporadic flashes of comic greatness, but is separated by draggy repetitive sketches that make it feel longer than it should.

Superman Returns1/2
The Man of Steel returns to Metropolis after a five-year absence, as he begins his life on Earth again as his alter ego Clark Kent, all the while trying to restart his romance with Lois Lane and doing battle with his arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. This summer blockbuster lives up to the hype. It's reverential to the source material, yet a unique film all its own.

X-Men: The Last Stand
Change is at the core of the third "X-Men" movie, with director Brett Ratner taking over for Bryan Singer. When a cure for the genetic aberrations that grant the mutants their powers is discovered, the team must choose between remaining as they are or become normal humans. The complexity of character that made the first two "X-Men" movies compelling are gone; spectacle trumps substance.

See No Evil
Wrestling star Kane plays a giant-sized serial killer that hunts down and kills, in gory detail, the delinquent teens who invade his hotel hideout.

Waist Deep
A paroled ex-convict (Tyrese Gibson), just out of prison, gets into immediate trouble after a dangerous gang kidnaps his son during a carjacking. A street-smart female hustler (Meagan Good) tries to help the ex-con get back his son during an action-packed tear through Los Angeles neighborhoods.